


Writ in Remembrance

by Kalypso



Series: Scenes from New Burbage [3]
Category: Slings & Arrows
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:35:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27788344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalypso/pseuds/Kalypso
Summary: Cyril and Frank return from Broadway to prepare forKing Lear.  But the death of an old acquaintance stirs up memories of that fateful production ofHamlet- and it's not the drama that everyone else remembers.
Relationships: Cyril (Slings & Arrows)/Brian Cabot, Cyril (Slings & Arrows)/Frank (Slings & Arrows)
Series: Scenes from New Burbage [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1554028
Comments: 9
Kudos: 4





	Writ in Remembrance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AJHall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AJHall/gifts).



> I am not sure whether anyone shares my interest in Brian Cabot, but the more I watched the _Macbeth_ season of _Slings & Arrows_, the more intrigued I became; he transforms from an unsympathetic antagonist to a sympathetic conspirator who puts the play first, and has (almost) the last word of the finale, when he recites lines spoken by John of Gaunt in _Richard II_ (from which the title is taken).
> 
> I would have liked to see him further developed in the final season, but he disappeared. And another actor entirely played Claudius when Jack Crew's _Hamlet_ opened at the end of the first season; we see him several times, and he's called Alan. So Brian was a one-season character. Or was he? I suddenly noticed that, back in that first season, when Geoffrey gives Ellen his own account of his on-stage breakdown, he says: "Laertes was here. Brian. Much thinner then, looking dashing."
> 
> Could the ageing actor who was playing Claudius in season two really have been Laertes to Geoffrey's Hamlet seven years before, even if he was "much thinner"? Well, I've always been sceptical about "seven years"; it feels a lot longer to me (my guess is that it was put in so Kate could say she saw the earlier production, and still play Ophelia as a teenager). And I started to think about other reasons why Brian might have aged suddenly.
> 
> Then I combined my theory with the puzzle of Frank needing to be told about Geoffrey's notorious exit despite claiming to have been at New Burbage "ever since it was under a tent". And suddenly the whole thing started to hang together. At least, I hope it did...

"Who was that?" asks Frank when I put the phone down.

"Anna. We're summoned to the headmaster's office tomorrow."

He raises his eyebrows in alarm. "Is it that last night in New York? I can't remember anything about it..."

"Don't worry, ducky, she didn't say anything about _that_. I think it's _Lear_."

"Oh, the casting, d'you mean? Who do you think we'll get?"

"Dunno." I fancy Oswald the steward, though they tend to cast him younger these days. 

"Pity we have to go to Oliver's office," says Frank.

"Geoffrey's office, now," I remind him.

"Oliver's still there, though, isn't he? I mean, his skull's there on the desk, listening to everything you say. Creepy, I call it."

"You're not wrong. And all his pictures still on the walls."

He looks at me. "Was there something else?"

"Something else?"

"Something else Anna said. You suddenly dropped your voice, like you didn't want me to hear."

"Nothing important."

He's suspicious now. And he's bound to hear it from someone; probably better to come clean.

"She said Brian's funeral's on Friday."

"Oh." There's a pause. Very Pinter. "Are you going, then?"

"Gloucester!" I stare across the desk at Geoffrey Tennant.

"Yes! If you'd like it? I can rein them in on the eye-gouging if you're worried..."

"No, no, eye-gouging is fine." I quite enjoy a bit of stage gore as long as it's easy to wash off.

"So?"

"Well..." I find myself grinning. "He's got a lot to say, hasn't he?"

"He has!" Geoffrey looks relieved. Did he think I would turn Gloucester _down_?

"I just wasn't expecting it."

"You're a Broadway star these days."

"Oh, but Duncan..." I say. "He's a good part - it's fun being king - but he's only 70 lines."

"That's the trouble with being bumped off in Act One."

"Not complaining, it was nice putting my feet up. But Gloucester... he must be 300?"

"More."

"I'd better go and start learning them, then!" I still can't stop smiling.

"That's great! Can you ask Frank to come in?"

"Of course." I'd love to ask what Frank's up for, but he ought to hear first. And then another thought hits me. "Geoffrey - if Brian was still here..."

"Um?"

"He'd have been perfect for Gloucester."

Geoffrey looks thoughtful. "He could have been."

"And you owed him, after Henry Breedlove."

"Maybe I did. But Cyril - in no way are you second-best. I don't know which of you I'd've cast, given a choice. Brian had his stroke before I thought about it."

I'm not sure I believe him, but I nod. "I'll go and get Frank."

"The headmaster will see you now!"

Frank looks up. "What did you get?"

"Tell you later. Mustn't keep him waiting - I'll mind your pint."

Oh, please let Frank get a decent part. He'll be pleased for me, but it won't be fair if he's just Old Man. One good thing about _Macbeth_ : Lennox may be a minor character, but he's 70 lines, just the same as Duncan, only spread across the play. I really don't want Frank feeling he's out in the cold now, when he's upset about Brian. Or rather, he's upset by the idea that _I_ might be upset.

All very silly, it was years ago, and I still think he over-reacted. Storming off to Vancouver before _Hamlet_ opened, just because he caught us with our trousers down in the Gents... It was a couple of years before he came back to New Burbage, and a few more before we got together again, and even then he wouldn't talk about it - we tiptoe round it, with phrases like "when you were in Vancouver". And we didn't mention _Hamlet_ until the new production, the season before last. Still, all that fuss told me he was serious about us. Now I'm more careful not to let my eye wander - or if it does, nothing else follows.

I can't say it was the _only_ time I wandered with Brian. In fact, it went on longer than it might have done; once Frank walked out there wasn't much reason to stop. Brian was very good-looking then - he could still get away with playing Laertes, though he was well past the right age. So when everything blew up, it was me pouring out the whiskey while Brian poured out his feelings.

For Osric - ie me - the big story of that _Hamlet_ was the sudden departure of the Second Gravedigger. But nobody else remembered _him_ , once Geoffrey Tennant staged his very own mad scene in the grave Frank was supposed to have dug. Particularly not Brian, left stranded halfway through a shouting match over Ophelia's body.

Funny, isn't it - him and Ellen going from Laertes and Ophelia to Claudius and Gertrude. Of course, he wasn't Claudius when we opened. But Alan got laryngitis, and Brian had just come home to New Burbage after a TV show, so he was the obvious back-up. He missed the shenanigans with Darren Bloody Nicholls - oh, just imagine him and Darren - and the disappearing movie star. By the time he arrived, _Hamlet_ was a palpable hit, and running... as smoothly as anything does round here.

Not like last time. "It's so selfish of Geoffrey," he kept saying. "You should see the state Ellen's in. I don't know how she can keep going." Playing her brother, he seemed to feel protective.

"I don't suppose he went mad on purpose," I said. "Or d'you think he's faking it? 'But mad in craft'?"

"Don't know, don't care. He waltzed in here, let Oliver make him a star, and now he's run away."

"Into a hospital. If it's any consolation, I doubt he's having fun."

"Oh, _poor Geoffrey_. I'm sorry, Cyril, but life is tough: you've got to stand up and take it. I don't know what set him off, but he's let us all down. Oliver's being brave, but I _know_ him, he's devastated."

This was at the heart of Brian's rage, of course. Whatever he had with Oliver was a long way back, but they stayed close, and Brian would never hear a word against him. Then Geoffrey Tennant arrived, and he was Oliver's blue-eyed boy, the star of every show. I think that was why Brian started doing more television; he felt squeezed out. But somehow Oliver sweet-talked him into Laertes, even though it was opposite Geoffrey.

The day after the disaster, he had his nose stuck in the text of _Hamlet_. Obviously, the understudy (Alex? - he was either Rosencrantz or Guildenstern) wouldn't do it for more than a few days. So who would Oliver call on? Someone he could trust, who would never let him down, and had Hamlet's 1500 lines by heart.

It was over within hours: Oliver called us all in to say he was very happy to announce Colm Feore would be taking over as Hamlet. Colm had played it recently, and we'd have a few days of intense rehearsal to absorb him into our production.

In the bar, Brian silently knocked back one drink after another. I was getting worried, so I insisted on walking him home, and stayed overnight. In the morning, he opened his eyes and said "I will never play the Dane."

"So? Neither will I," I said, suddenly irritated by this melodrama.

"Oh yes, but you're..." He stopped. There wasn't a kind way to end that sentence.

"Not in that class? No. Welcome to my world."

He burst into tears, and I went into the kitchen to make him some coffee.

That was pretty much the end of things between us. I kept an eye on him, but he wasn't the type to do anything silly, and he wouldn't let Oliver down, even after the man had dealt him the fatal blow of not thinking he was up to playing Hamlet. He stuck it out for the rest of the run, just as Ellen did, and brought real venom to the duel. As Osric, I had a close-up view; I was never sure whether it was Colm or Geoffrey he was attacking.

Afterwards, he concentrated on character parts, and did them well. He put on weight to play Falstaff, and never lost it. His hair turned, and he didn't dye it. We shared a stage from time to time, and were polite to one another.

When he took over Claudius, he seemed shocked that I was playing one of the guards: "This is too much from Geoffrey - you should be Polonius by now!"

"Nothing to do with him," I said stiffly. "Oliver cast it, and gave me a small role because I was playing Quince in the _Dream_ and Semyonov in the _Orchard_."

"Oh, I see," he said. "Well, better luck next time, eh?" Frank was scowling at him, so he hurried away.

But I have had better luck, haven't I, and it's probably down to him. If he hadn't burned his boats with Geoffrey, would I have played Duncan on Broadway? Would I be looking at Gloucester now?

Frank walks back in with a huge grin on his face.

"The Fool!" he exclaims.

"Natural casting, ducky," I say, hugging him in relief. "I'm Gloucester."

"You old libertine!"

We buy another round to celebrate. Then Jerry comes in - he's got Kent - so we have another.

"Have you heard Brian's funeral's on Friday?" he asks. I wince, but he wasn't to know.

"Yes."

"Are you going?"

I hesitate, but it's Frank who answers. "Course we are. We've known him for years."

 _O, let me kiss that hand!_ But he won't want anyone asking why, so I just take Frank's hand and squeeze it under the table.

**Author's Note:**

> As Kate remarks in season one, when Jack hopes that Claire is injured so that her understudy takes over, "It doesn't work like that, they'd just bring somebody in." Sadly, we know nothing about the understudy who replaces Geoffrey in the final scene - we see him for a few seconds only - but it seems likely that Oliver would have found someone better known to take over, and it would be someone who had played Hamlet before so he didn't need to learn 1500 lines from scratch (OK, anyone who's spent much time in Shakespearean theatre probably knows a lot of the soliloquies, but it's still the longest role in the canon). I started wondering about Canadians who had played Hamlet in the 1990s, so looked up the Stratford Festival. And I found that their three Hamlets between 1991 and 2000 were... Colm Feore, Stephen Ouimette and Paul Gross! The thought of Oliver hiring either his own lookalike or Geoffrey's was too mind-boggling, so it had to be Colm. Maybe playing Hamlet was one of Sanjay's dreams that came true.
> 
> Gloucester says "O, let me kiss that hand!" when he meets Lear on the beach at Dover. I also stole a key line from _Withnail and I_.


End file.
